It all goes back to 1997 when the EPA declared Dallas ozone levels as exceeding the agency’s mandate of 84 ppb — particles per billion, maybe — and gave the city 13 years to clean up the air. Thirteen years later, and nope, better but the best we could do was 86 ppb, still outside the OK zone.

Dallas has a year to come into compliance or … or what? The feds put a big acrylic bubble over the city to protect Fort Worth?

So now we gasp along at “serious” levels, choke out a hearty thanks to folks like Joe Barton, and wait for the EPA to set the next ozone-0K level, expected to be between 60-70 ppb, July 31.

Then we’ll go from “serious” to the municipal equivalent of “shoot on sight.”

Bruce Felps owns and operatesEast Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. His respiratory issues are mostly his own doing.